Layla
by SwanseaGurl
Summary: Sam wants nothing more than her husband's love but can Steven Hyde let go of thoughts of his doll Jackie. Sequel of sorts to Rethinking. One-shot.


Ok, here it is. A sequel of sorts of Rethinking, though it can be read independently as well. The violent parts are very AU but hey, its my story ;-)

Please review. JH forever

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Jackie and Sam stood facing each other. Donna was right behind Sam but it didn't faze Jackie a bit. She has gotten used to people stabbing her in the back and her former best friend was no exception.

"You think you act all innocent and nobody will suspect you, but I am aware of what you are doing you midget."

"I have absolutely no idea what it is you are rambling about Sam, what's got your panties in a twist? Not getting enough dollars in your G-string?" the brunette smirked evilly.

"You know what I am talking about, Hyde chose me, he married me, but even after being dumped you just won't leave him alone."

"I have not been near your precious Hyde in weeks and I haven't been anywhere near the basement."

"That doesn't matter, coz you are still interfering in our lives. Why the hell don't you just go away and let us be happy. Nobody wants you here."

"The same thing could be said for you whore-face, if you hadn't taken advantage of Steven being drunk and if he wasn't so honorable you would have been out on your ass a long time ago."

"I didn't take advantage of him, he came to me. Said he wanted to get away from you. He never did love you Jackie, you were just a convenient lay for him." Sam hit back, smiling when Jackie's face fell a few inches.

"He may have never loved me Sam, but you can be sure he won't ever love you."

Sam's expression became livid. She remembered all the times Hyde had called out for this girl while they were in the throes of passion. Foolishly she had thought, she was making love to her husband, but now she knew Hyde was only using her body but in his mind he was making love to his 'layla'.

Before anybody could know what happened, Sam had stepped forward and slapped Jackie right across the face. Jackie touched her nose and was shocked to find she was bleeding. Wiping at her nose with her sleeve, she looked up to face Sam and get her back when she saw something behind the blonde that made her blood run cold.

Rushing forward and pushing Sam out of the way, she helped Donna hold back a furious Steven Hyde who had just come in the door when Jackie was hit.

Trying to push Jackie out of the way without hurting her, Hyde said "Get out of my way Jackie; I am going to show her what happens when she hurts my friends."

The unfazed blonde looked on defiantly as she spoke "Hurt your friend or your girlfriend? This whore is the reason you don't love me, isn't it?"

Now struggling even more against the girls, he could easily push them out of the way, but he didn't want to hurt them, especially Jackie, he said "I'll show you who a whore is you two cent stripper. You call Jackie that one more time and I'll bash your face in, girl or not. You don't wanna know what I did to the last person who had something bad to say about her."

Now both livid and quickly realizing her plan to confront Jackie was backfiring on her, Sam started sobbing desperately "You see what you're doing here, you asked me to stay, you said you'd make this marriage work. And now you're standing against me for her. She cheated on you, you said so yourself. You told me you hated her, and now you're turning on me because of her."

Hyde stopped struggling, as much as he wanted to hit Sam; he knew it wasn't in him to raise his hand on a lady. Though if she kept bad-mouthing Jackie, he wasn't sure he could stick to that principle. But he knew a way to cut her down that would be much more painful than if he had physically hurt her.

"If you believed all those lies I told you, then you surely don't know me like you claim to. I never hated her, I never could. It's you who I despise, I can't stand you Sam. The only reason I stayed with you was because I married you when drunk and I didn't want to turn into my father by running out on my responsibilities. But instead, staying with you has turned me into my father. He ran away from his wife and kid because he was a coward, and that's exactly what I did to Jackie. I was scared of how vulnerable she made me and I ran instead of confronting my demons. I don't owe you shit, the only one I owe an apology is the one who is holding me back from hurting you, even though you have done nothing but hurt her since you've come here."

"She is just acting all forgiving and nice because you're here. You don't know how she has been treating me all this time.

Donna, who had till now been standing quietly, keeping an eye on Hyde to be safe, stepped forward and scoffed.

"How she has been treating you, you came into her world and turned it upside down, Hyde and she were deeply in love and you destroyed it without a second thought. You cruelly taunted her every chance you got till she stopped coming to the basement altogether, and you're saying she has been treating you badly? If she has tied you to a truck and dragged you along the road, it would have still not been nearly enough for what you did to her, to them."

The blonde looked shocked, Donna had always been friendly with her, even joining her occasionally in burning Jackie. "Donna, I thought you were my friend. You're taking her side too now?"

"Let's get one thing clear you bitch, the only reason I tolerated you was because of Hyde. I'm not your friend and I never will be. I know I have been cruel to Jackie too, I was so caught up in my own troubles I didn't want to have to acknowledge her troubles too and so I pushed her away. But let's just say I have come back to my senses now. You wanna take a swing at Jackie, you have to get through me first" saying this she stood protectively in front of the brunette.

"And me" Steven Hyde added, still standing by Jackie's side.

Sam stood stock still, so shocked that she was almost frozen. How had things changed so suddenly, she had thought she could bully Jackie into cutting all ties with the gang so she could get close to Hyde, but instead she was now on the outs while her friend was standing like a sentinel in front of the girl and her husband appeared to be holding the midget's hand and rubbing circles on her palm with his thumb.

It was then that she realized that she would never hold her husband's heart. Because his heart was already held by the girl he was holding onto so gently. Sex, a common taste in music, lap dancing, getting him beer without him asking, she had tried everything, but Hyde's stubborn heart refused to let go of Jackie. Sam was done, she knew it was time to pack up and leave. But she wasn't going to go without a few choice words for the girl because of who she never had a chance with her own husband.

"This is all your fault. My marriage never had a chance because you were looming over it all the time. You stole my husband from me."

Jackie, who had remained quite all this time, partly because she was astonished by Steven's and Donna's protectiveness after such a long time, faced Sam as she spoke "You are blaming me for your marriage not working? I was with Steven for two years before you came in. We were in love and you came in and destroyed it. I came to you after Steven told me he was staying with you, I begged you to end the marriage. I cried and I pleaded that I loved him and I couldn't live without him. He was the only good thing in my life. My parents were gone, I had absolutely nobody else, and I never needed anybody because he was with me. I left my dream job behind because it wasn't worth losing him over and I didn't look back. And you took away the only thing that was mine that I loved more than myself. Even if you wanted to give the marriage a fair try you could have just ignored my pleas. Instead you taunted me, burned me for being dumped for you. You gave me a knife to cut my veins."

So overcome was she with emotion, she didn't realize Steven was standing beside her, shamefacedly listening to everything. But when he heard about the knife, he lost it.

In two steps he was standing in front of his soon to be ex-wife, holding her wrist in his left hand, he started digging into his pocket with his right. Meanwhile Donna stood holding onto a wailing Jackie, whose bitter cries were echoing in the small room, neither of them paying attention to the married couple.

It was only when Sam started shrieking that they looked up to find much to their horror that Hyde was attempting to slash Sam's veins with his Swiss knife.

Both girls were at Hyde's side in a second. While Donna set about getting the knife out of Hyde's hand, Jackie took his face in her hands and forced him to look into her eyes.

"Steven, you can't do this. I know she is a horrible person but you can't hurt her, that's just not you. You're better than that Steven, I know you are."

Letting the knife drop from his and simultaneously letting go of Sam's wrist, Hyde turned to look at Jackie properly. The girl who had loved him so much and who had been hurt repeatedly by him was stroking his cheeks softly to calm him down. He had been so cruel to her, knowing very well she had nobody but him, yet he kept hurting her, burning her. He knew he would never have her again and instead of blaming himself he had taken to blaming her, hoping hating her would help him ignore the pain raging in his heart. Nothing had helped and his cruelty had gotten so much that she had stopped coming by altogether. And yet here she was, looking at him so lovingly, her eyes red and swollen with months' worth of tears. He had no idea she had gone to Sam, he only wished he had seen that. He would have dumped Sam in a heartbeat if he knew Jackie would forgive him, responsibility be damned.

The thought of Jackie taking her own life though, spurred on by Sam's cruelty and his indifference, his blood froze at that thought. He would've killed Sam and then himself if anything happened to the girl he now could freely acknowledge he still loved so much.

Holding her face gently in his warm palms, he wiped away the tears and spoke in the voice he reserved only for her "Don't cry anymore baby, it's all over, it's finally over." Seeing the small smile playing on her lips, he crashed them with his own, holding her closer when she slipped her tongue into his mouth, pulling her body into his so it looked like the two were fused together.

They lost track of how long they had been kissing, when suddenly a livid foreign voice broke through their delirium. Breaking apart they saw an angry Fez staring at them. Instead of moving away though, Hyde possessively held onto Jackie, who squeezed his hand in reassurance, as he prepared to fight another best friend for the heart of the girl he loved. His 'Layla'.


End file.
